Women in Wargaming: In My Shoes

I sadly feel compelled to preface this post with this: I don't usually post up my strong opinions on such subjects as the internet can be a harsh place full of haters and trolls. So I have generally kept to my sewing and painting and other non-feather-ruffling subjects. But this is my outlet, my place to say my piece, even if no one is listening. 
If you choose to comment, please be respectful of each others' viewpoints and opinions.

When I try to search for women in wargaming on the internet I usually end up with mostly two things: scantily-clad cosplayers/ "booth babes" and the female characters in various armies. Instead what I want are groups of women who love wargaming and gaming in general with which I and other women could find comraderie. But they are few, far between, and many seem to be alone in their areas.

This and That and Stuff and Things

Brilliant post title, don't you think? Yeah, my creativity sometimes fails me in that area. 

But really, I don't have one specific thing I wanted to post about today, I have a bunch of little things, none of which is big enough for its own post but each of which I want to share.  There's not really any one place that seems more logical to start than another, so I'm just going to jump right on in.

Recently one of the blogs I follow posted a link back to this xkcd article on colors and color naming and color theory.  This is fascinating in its own right but also something I've been trying to really delve into a bit in the last year or so partially because of my desire to make my miniature painting better and partially because of my desire to figure out what looks good in fashion.

Painting a Paladin: Part 2

As you know by now, I'm fond of painting for Lost Hemisphere's monthly Paint the Target posts. It's fun to see my stuff up elsewhere and it's a great motivator to get my painting a bit faster.

As a reminder, I was repainting Menoth's Paladin of the Order of the Wall. Also, I recognize that today is not a Friday and this is not a sewing post, but LH posted the Target today, so I am as well. The world won't end because of it; I am certain.

My husband's Pally as he was before

Painting a Paladin: Part 1

For this month's Paint the Target over at Lost Hemisphere (follow the link to see last month's entries, my husband's is the 'jack with the huge grin 6 down from the top) the criteria is that we paint a model that "has the highest of any stat in your faction." That kindof eliminated any of the trolls for me because the high stat Trollbloods that I'm hoping to paint soon are all things that are going to take a little more time. Instead I turned to Menoth, the other faction that we keep around, and this guy: Paladin of the Order of the Wall.

Paladin OoW painted by my husband

Sometimes painting means sacrifice. In this case it meant sacrificing an old paint job. It was an early paint job 6 or 7 years ago with a color that he really liked (Vallejo's Brick Red) that we no longer have. But he is ever generous, so into the dipping pot it went to remove all of his paint and start fresh.

GenCon 2012: GRiPT Games

Ok, this is the last post about GenCon this year, I promise. After this I'll get back to the sewing and the painting.

the GRiPT guys in deep discussion

Admittedly I'm all talked out on this subject. I've submitted an article to Lost Hemisphere about the gaming with both of GRiPT's scenarios but no word yet on whether they'll end up posting that. They also have some great pics of the 3 Walls that we took to the Con this year.

The Minis of GenCon 2012: GenCon Cases

Finally, here is the last batch of pics of minis from this year's convention. These are from the GenCon painting contests. Some are from speedpainting and some are just the general awesomeness contests. They were all pretty cool. Maybe I'll enter next year.... 

:)

watching these painted was one of the high moments of the con for me

Aces XI Charity Speed Paint

Back L->R: Marketh (Skorne) by Angela Imrie, Widowmaker Leader (Khador) by Amy Stegman, Gorman Di Wulfe (Merc) by Matt DiPietro, Shepherd (Legion) by Jennifer Kaufman, Valeria Alvaro (IKRPG) by Zach Lanier

Front L->R: Journyeman Warcaster (Cygnar) by Derek Schubert, Lord of the Feast (Circle) by Jessica Rich, Arcanist (Retribution) by Sue Wachowski, Pistol Wraith (Cryx) by Marike Reimer, Exemplar Errant Officer (Menoth) by Noel Meyer

The Minis of GenCon 2012: the Tables

Continuing to post pics of minis I saw at GenCon, these are minis that I saw out and about either on the gaming tables or just from other attendees.

Mulg the Ancient painted by Dan at Wyrd Miniatures

...at least that was what the gamer who was playing with him told me.  The pic really doesn't do him justice, he's gorgeous in deep purples shaded nearly up to white.

The Minis of GenCon 2012: PP & CMON

I took a ton of pics of minis during this year's convention. I've tried to whittle those down to a reasonable number to share here.  This first batch are those I found in the Privateer Press and Cool Mini or Not cases.

Please let me know if any of these models are yours so I can put your name up with it!

the shading on this guy was beautiful

ETA: This model has been identified by its highly talented painter as Dark Young from Blackball Games painted by Jess Rich aka Brushmistress. You can also find her speedpainting entry (please please correct me if I have any of them mixed up!) over on my blog entry from the ACES charity event.

GenCon 2012 Photodump 4

This con has been awesome.  And just because we are exhausted and calling it quits for this year doesn't mean the pictures will stop flowing just yet, after all I've taken way more than what I've already posted. lol

And now having had actual sleep I have enough energy to actually get captions on some of these! :P

Me and local kid (Youngblood Golden Demon) ended up in the same class

Marike Reimer taught us about sheer fabrics and freehanding

GenCon 2012 Photodump 3

OMG best day of GenCon yet! Had a great day and a couple of really stellar moments.  Looking forward to posting all about it after all the fun is over and I've had a few hours of sleep. In the mean time here are some pics. As before, I've taken a tonne more than what I'm posting here so I'll share more later when I can get them sorted properly.

5th Doctor and the T.A.R.D.I.S.

GenCon 2012 Photodump 2

The first full day of gaming at GenCon was a blast. Super tired and sore from all of the walking so you're getting some lower quality photos and not the full set.  I took almost 200 photos today.  Missing from today's photodump are pics of all of the minis I gawked at and pics of GRiPT Games' scenarios "The Wall" and "The City." I'll come back and put captions on these at some point.

Serra Angel

GenCon 2012 Photodump 1

Photos from the night before the first day of Gencon

Hanging at the RAM after picking up our badges at WillCall

Dr Who (5th) Cosplay: Ready for GenCon 2012

Ok, I've finally got the pics you've been waiting for. The costume is done and ready and so am I! I've been doing a lot of sewing and other 'making' in the last week as final preparation.

new badge holders for the Mr. and myself (front & back of each)

The red tape/cords are from badge holders that he's acquired for free in the past. We have no affiliation with Konami, I think it was free in his swag bag one year.  The black & white fabric is left over from a nursing cover I did for a friend a while back, but we both liked i for this. I added a netted section to mine in case I want to put tickets or my phone or something in there. My husband requested his as a 'badge only' badge holder and is currently sporting a badge from 2007 I used as a size guide.

Big Post of Minis

I'm way behind in showing you some of the miniature-related fun we've had going on at home lately, so since I have had zero time to sew in the last two days I think I'll show you now!

First off I painted a model last month for Lost Hemisphere's monthly Paint the Target fun.  This month's target was to paint a model with reach.  I chose the Troll's Kriel Warrior Caber Thrower.

really proud of the muscle shading & highlighting

Whereas in real life a caber looks more like a telephone pole, this troll has hoisted up a marble pillar to hurl at his enemies.  (Want to know more about caber tossing? Check this out! And for those who want something more sciencey there's this!)

 

tartan painted in the dark. I swear I'll fix it.

Remember way back when I entered Captain Spud's Make Something Amazing Contest over at Lost Hemisphere? No? Well, I've posted about it a few times, notably here and here.  Anyway, even though I didn't win, Spud sent out small prizes to everyone anyway, and very generous ones at that.

Super exciting to get mail from Canada!

My husband had entered, too and we were super excited to see what we had received. 

Inside there were things for each of us: a 6" spray and a letter. 

 

reluctantly letting me photograph his letter

Mine certifies that I am "amazing," my husband's: not so much.  He had a bit of trouble with his project, but I'm proud of him for seeing it through to the end.

The box that made up the bulk of the package was the Dire Troll plastic kit, which contains the bits and pieces to make any combo of 3 Dire Trolls: The Blitzer, the Bomber, or the Mauler.

 

a hand full of heads

a hand full of hands

We are currently working on a way to make it work so that we can actually use all three.

Hey, there's a FOURTH card there!

 What's that fourth card? It's for Rok! While I've been busy sewing away for GenCon my husband has been busy playing Warmahordes and winning. With his winnings he was able to purchase the kit for Rok that also goes with the Dire Troll kit.

And then there was this shiny that he had been wanting and that I had been wanting to paint: The Trollblood Runeshapers.

 

oh yeah, that's going to be fun hee hee

And then I made a tiny purchase of my own. It's not an exceptional model but the price was right.  I am taking a few classes at GenCon including some for painting (faces, freehanding, etc), so I wanted to have something cheap with me that I could work on while I was there.

Well, I have to rush out the door to work, so I guess that's all for now!

 

Happy Friday!

Dr Who (5th) Cosplay: Jacket Progress

I'm making good progress on my cosplay for GenCon, which is good, because at this point it's only about a month away! yays!  If you recall from before, this was the sketch I made when I was coming up with ideas for the feminized version of the 5th regeneration of The Doctor as portrayed by Peter Davidson.

Making Mulg: Part III

With the final photos of my sculpture of Mulg and a writeup about how I did it and why I thought I deserved to win submitted to Captain Spud over at Lost Hemisphere, it was a very very long week of waiting to find out the results of the contest.  The results were posted via a post that held the judging and results in audio form (no really, feel free to head over and hear them rip us all to shreds. some salty language included.) and a link to everyone's completed projects.

Sad to say, I did not win.

Apparently no one like's Mulg's face:

Making Mulg: Part II

This weekend, the process submissions for the Make Something Amazing Contest over at Lost Hemisphere were finally posted.  If you want to go over and take a look mine is a little over halfway down. (brace yourself, it's a long post)

Mulg the Ancient (Privateer Press)

Since I went nutty there and posted it all in limericks, I thought I'd post the original not-as-poetic text here with a few pics not posted over there (we had a limit of 10 afterwhich Captain Spud started adding things like Captain Kangaroo's head onto the photos lol).  This could get long, so I'll post half now and half on another day.

Making Mulg: Part I

A while back I mentioned that I was working on a project for that fun bunch over at Lost Hemisphere called the Make Something Amazing Challenge.  

As I mentioned before, I'm making Mulg the Ancient. He's a troll, but he's also kind of a mountain, and you don't want to get on his bad side. lol

So last time I had just started playing around with the sculpey, getting the feel of it, testing it out.  Since then I've sculpted, re-sculpted, repaired, and begun painting this guy.  I've actually taken pretty extensive photos of the whole process, but you'll have to wait till they get posted over at the LH blog before I show them all off over here.

However, one of the days when I needed a break from working on Mulg I decided to do a baby Mulg to go with my husband's whelps he is making for the contest.

Here he is getting ready to go into the oven

Beginnings and Endings

If you read the previous post, you know how overwhelmed I've been feeling lately trying to get everything done. Well, life thought now was a good time to throw more at us. In a week filled with work stress for us both, we have also had to rather suddenly say goodbye to a couple people that were dear to us. 

Sometimes I find when things are rough, it helps for a while to do something 'normal.' So I'm going to take an hour and let my eyes dry a bit while I focus on something else and share some minis stuff with you.

Painting the Redeemer Part I

In addition to a whole mound of sewing lately I've been working on several fun geekery projects. The first I'll share to day, the second (superexcitingspiffiness) i'll share with you next week.

 Last year one of the models my husband won was this fun Menoth Warjack.